I’ve never seen this movie even though, being a Kubrick film, it’s supposed to be good. That and I kept seeing the distinctive white cover Kubrick DVDs when I frequented DVD stores. I didn’t even know what it’s about! But now I do.
Full Metal Jacket is about the Vietnam war, there are two parts; loosely connected through the use of the same characters. The first part is a portrayal, and character story, of boot camp. It’s not as compelling as the second part as the situations are smaller scale and in a limited context, but I assume that it would be shocking to those who are not familiar with the military. While I’ve never gone through military training, I kind of understand the thought process behind it and was not shocked by the scenes.
I found the second part more interesting, when the recruits actually take part in the war. In particular, the story follows one marine who ends up writing for the army newspaper. As you can expect from a movie that is based on the Vietnam war, basically everyone dies. I think at a certain point, when you realize what a tragedy war is, the killing and relative number of deaths between a successful war (i.e., Operation Desert Storm) and a failed one is inconsequential. Not being of the generation, I probably didn’t understand many of the cultural references or missed many salient points; which may be why it didn’t feel like a highly-acclaimed movie. I’d rate it 2 out of 5 stars.
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